The International highlights of 2012 in pictures. Pics by AP

FILE - In this Jan. 12, 2012 file photo, Mohammad Saber Yaqoti Hussaini Khedri, second right, the calligrapher of the world's biggest copy of the holy Quran turns a page at a ceremony in Kabul, Afghanistan. Khedri claims to have completed the writing of the world's biggest copy of Islam's holy Quran in 5 years along with his nine students and the financial support of a well- known figure Afghan Sayed Mansoor Nadri. (AP Photo/Musadeq Sadeq, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 31, 2012 file aerial photo, homes flooded by Hurricane Isaac in Braithwaite, La., are seen. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip, File)

FILE - This Oct. 30, 2012 file aerial photo shows burned-out homes in the Breezy Point section of the Queens borough New York. The tiny beachfront neighborhood told to evacuate before Sandy hit New York burned down as it was inundated by floodwaters, transforming a quaint corner of the Rockaways into a smoke-filled debris field. (AP Photo/Mike Groll, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 14, 2012 file photo released by the Guardia di Finanza (border Police), the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia leans on its side after running aground off the tiny Tuscan island of Giglio, Italy. The luxury cruise ship ran aground off the coast of Tuscany, sending water pouring in through a 160-foot (50-meter) gash in the hull and forcing the evacuation of some 4,200 people from the listing vessel early. . (AP Photo/Guardia di Finanza, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 17, 2012 file photo, smoke rises during an explosion from an Israeli forces strike in Gaza City. Israel bombarded the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip with nearly 200 airstrikes widening a blistering assault on Gaza rocket operations by militants to include the prime minister's headquarters, a police compound and a vast network of smuggling tunnels. (AP Photo/Hatem Moussa, File)

FILE - In this May 20, 2012 file photo, hikers watch an annular eclipse from Papago Park in Phoenix. The annular eclipse, in which the moon passes in front of the sun leaving only a golden ring around its edges, was visible to wide areas across China, Japan and elsewhere in the region before moving across the Pacific to be seen in parts of the western United States. (AP Photo/The Arizona Republic, Michael Chow, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 19, 2012 file photo, surrounded by British police, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, center, makes a statement to the media and supporters from a window of the Ecuadorian Embassy in central London. Assange entered the embassy in June in an attempt to gain political asylum and prevent him from being extradited to Sweden, where he faces allegations of sex crimes, which he denies. Assange called on United States President Barack Obama to 'end a "witch hunt" against the secret-spilling WikiLeaks organization. (AP Photo/Sang Tan, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 29, 2012 file photo, underprivileged Indian children dressed in costume to look like the late Mahatma Gandhi arrive on a bus before attempting a world record in Kolkata, India. Local non-government organizations put on the event and a total of 485 children took part in the rally ahead of the anniversary of Gandhi's death which falls on January 30th. (AP Photo/Bikas Das, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 22, 2012 file photo, Hindu devotees cross a newly constructed temporary bridge at Sangam, the confluence of rivers Ganges and Yamuna, in Allahabad, India. Hundreds of thousands of Hindu pilgrims take dips in the confluence, some hoping to wash away sins and others to secure a spouse, during the month long festival. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 29, 2012 file photo, Santosh, who sells donkey milk, holds a baby upside down after feeding him some of the liquid, locally believed to be a cure for a persistent cough in a slum in Mumbai, India. Millions of children are growing up in squalid urban areas and denied basic services despite living close to them. UNICEF said children living in slums and shantytowns often lack water, electricity and healthcare and urged policy makers to ensure urban planning meets the needs of children. (AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool, File)

FILE - In this March 4, 2012 file photo, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin who claimed victory in Russia's presidential election, has tears in his eyes as he emotionally reacts at a massive rally of his supporters at Manezh square outside Kremlin, in Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)

FILE - In this Monday, Nov. 26, 2012 file photo, a man takes photographs inside a burned out garment factory on the outskirts of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The blaze at the factory killed 112 workers. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - In this Aug. 17, 2012 file photo, feminist punk group Pussy Riot members, from left, Yekaterina Samutsevich, Maria Alekhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova sit in a glass cage at a court room in Moscow, Russia. The women, two of whom have young children, are charged with hooliganism connected to religious hatred. The case was widely seen as a warning that authorities will tolerate opposition only under tightly controlled conditions. T-shirt on right worn by Tolokonnikova is Spanish and translates to "They shall not pass", a slogan often used to express determination to defend a position against an enemy.(AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 22, 2012 file photo, people stand near a house sitting in the middle of a new main road on the outskirts of Wenling city in east China's Zhejiang province. Authorities have demolished the five-story home that stood incongruously in the middle of a new main road and had become the latest symbol of resistance by Chinese homeowners against officials accused of offering unfair compensation. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - In this Sept. 28, 2012 file photo, Nepalese gather around the burning wreckage at the crash site of a Sita Air airplane near Katmandu, Nepal. The plane carrying trekkers to the Everest region crashed and burned just after takeoff in NepalÌs capital, killing the 19 Nepali, British and Chinese people on board. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - In this Jan. 10, 2012 file photo, a man injured in a bomb blast puts on a shoe before being taken to the hospital in the Khyber region, near Peshawar, Pakistan. A bomb targeting a tribal militia opposed to the Pakistani Taliban exploded in a market close to the Afghan border, killing dozens of people in the deadliest blast in the country in several months. (AP Photo/Qazi Rauf, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 16, 2012 file photo, a man rides a horse through a bonfire in San Bartolome de Pinares, Spain in honor of Saint Anthony, the patron saint of animals. On the eve of Saint Anthony's Day, hundreds ride their horses trough the narrow cobblestone streets of the small village of San Bartolome during the "Luminarias," a tradition that dates back 500 years and is meant to purify the animals with the smoke of the bonfires and protect them for the year to come. (AP Photo/Daniel Ochoa de Olza, File)

FILE - In this June 29, 2012 file photo, Egypt's President-elect Mohammed Morsi waves to supporters after giving a speech at Tahrir Square in Cairo. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra, File)

FILE - In this March 12, 2012 file photo, Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, right, puts his hands on the neck of Spain's Economy Minister Luis de Guindos, center, as Dutch Finance Minister Jan Kees De Jager, left, looks on during a meeting of eurozone finance ministers at the EU Council building in Brussels. As ministers chatted with each other at the meeting, the eurogroup's chief, Jean-Claude Juncker, came up behind Spanish finance minister, Luis De Guindos, and jokingly grabbed him by the neck with both hands, but the gesture soon appeared to change into a laughing friendly greeting and then deep discussion. The 17 euro countries were trying to focus on issues beyond the Greek crisis and deal with longer-term issues in their currency union, like discussing Spain's high deficits and potentially dangerous imbalances in some countries. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 6, 2012 file photo, 2-year-old Liana Brinkerhoff, top left, looks on while sitting on the shoulder of her farther at a polling place in Billings, Mont. After a grinding presidential campaign, Americans headed into polling places across the country to cast their ballot for president. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

FILE - In this July 23, 2012 file photo, James E. Holmes appears in Arapahoe County District Court in Centennial, Colo. Holmes was being held on suspicion of first-degree murder, and facing additional counts of aggravated assault and weapons violations stemming from a mass shooting in a movie theater in Aurora, Colo., that killed 12 and injured dozens of others. (AP Photo/Denver Post, RJ Sangosti, Pool, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 24, 2012 file photo, mass murderer Anders Behring Breivik, makes a salute after arriving in the court room at a courthouse in Oslo. Breivik, who admitted killing 77 people in Norway last year, was declared sane and sentenced to prison for bomb and gun attacks. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)

FILE - In this April 24, 2012 file photo, North Korea's new commander in chief, Kim Jong Un is displayed on a giant screen during a concert on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the founding of the North Korean army in Pyongyang, North Korea. (AP Photo/Ng Han Gua, File)

FILE - In this June 26, 2012 file photo, fire from the Waldo Canyon wildfire burns as it moved into subdivisions and destroyed homes in Colorado Springs, Colo. (AP Photo/Gaylon Wampler, File)

FILE - In this may 24, 2012 file photo, lawmakers scuffle from pro-presidential and oppositional factions in the parliament session hall in Kiev, Ukraine. The hall erupted over a bill that would allow the use of the Russian language in courts, hospitals and other institutions in the Russian-speaking regions of the country. (AP Photo/Maks Levin, File)

FILE - In this May 29, 2012 file photo, elderly people lay on their beds after they were evacuated from the nearby hospital, in Mirandola, northern Italy. A powerful earthquake killed at least 15 people and left 200 injured as it rocked a swath of northern Italy hit just nine days ago. Factories, warehouses and churches collapsed, dealing a second blow to a region where thousands remained homeless from the previous, stronger temblor. The 5.8 magnitude quake left 14,000 people homeless in the Emilia Romagna region north of Bologna, one of Italyís most agriculturally and industrially productive areas. (AP Photo/Marco Vasini, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 26, 2012 file photo, police officers are sprayed with milk by European milk farmers during a demonstration outside the European Parliament in Brussels. Farmers drove their tractors into the European Quarter of Brussels for a two-day demonstration to protest against what they believe are unfair milk prices. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 26, 2012 file photo, Actress Angelina Jolie poses on the red carpet for photographers as she arrives the 84th Academy Awards in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta, File)

FILE - In this March 28, 2012 file photo made available by the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, Pope Benedict XVI, right, meets with Fidel Castro in Havana, Cuba. (AP Photo/Osservatore Romano, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 14, 2012 file photo provided by Red Bull Stratos, pilot Felix Baumgartner of Austria jumps out of the capsule during the final manned flight for Red Bull Stratos. In a giant leap from more than 24 miles up, Baumgartner shattered the sound barrier while making the highest jump ever with a tumbling, death-defying plunge from a balloon to a safe landing in the New Mexico desert. (AP Photo/Red Bull Stratos, File)

FILE - In this May 18, 2012 file photo provided by Facebook, Facebook founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, center, rings the Nasdaq opening bell from Facebook headquarters in Menlo Park, Calif. Robert Greifeld, second from right, CEO of the Nasdaq-OMX Stock Market, Inc. The social media company had its IPO. (AP Photo/Nasdaq via Facebook, Zef Nikolla, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 30,, 2012 file photo, actor and director Clint Eastwood speaks to an empty chair while addressing delegates during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 30, 2012 file photo, a parking lot full of yellow cabs is flooded as a result of superstorm Sandy in Hoboken, NJ. (AP Photo/Charles Sykes, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 29, 2012 file photo, a rebel sniper aims at a Syrian army position, seen with another rebel fighter reflected in a mirror, in a residential building in the Jedida district of Aleppo, Syria. (AP Photo/Narciso Contreras, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 7, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama and wife Michelle holds hands with Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill following Obama's victory speech to supporters in Chicago. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 16, 2012 file photo, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, left, and President Barack Obama spar during the second presidential debate at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 12, 2012 file photo, spectators gather to watch the space shuttle Endeavour make its way down Manchester Blvd. in Los Angeles. Endeavour's 12-mile road trip kicked off as it moved from its Los Angeles International Airport hangar en route to the California Science Center, its ultimate destination. (AP Photo/Chris Carlson, File)

FILE - In this March 29, 2012 file photo, Mireia Arnau, 39, reacts behind the broken glass of her shop stormed by demonstrators during clashes at the general strike in Barcelona. Spanish workers livid over labor reforms they see as flagrantly pro-business staged a nationwide strike and tried to bring the country to a halt by blocking traffic, closing factories and clashing with police in rowdy demonstrations. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti, File)

FILE - In this July 24, 2012 file photo, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez holds up a pair of pistols that he says belonged to Venezuela's independence hero Simon Bolivar during a ceremony marking 229th anniversary of Bolivar's birth at Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas, Venezuela. Bolivar is the namesake of Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution movement, and his government is putting the finishing touches on a new mausoleum to house Bolivar's remains. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano, File)

FILE -In this June 15, 2012 file photo, Nik Wallenda walks over Niagara Falls on a tightrope in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Wallenda finished his attempt to become the first person to walk on a tightrope 1,800 feet across the mist-fogged brink of roaring Niagara Falls. The seventh-generation member of the famed Flying Wallendas had long dreamed of pulling off the stunt, never before attempted. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 8, 2012 file photo, a man carries puppies back inside their house as other dogs stay on the roof at a flooded area in Marikina City, east of Manila, Philippines. Widespread flooding that killed at least 11 people, battered a million others and paralyzed the Philippine capital began to ease as cleanup and rescue efforts focused on a large number of distressed residents, some still marooned on their roofs. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 30, 2012 file photo, residents evacuate their flooded neighborhood in LaPlace, La. Hurricane Isaac staggered toward central Louisiana, its weakening winds driving storm surge into portions of the coast and the River Parishes between New Orleans and Baton Rouge. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2012 file photo, people walk along an icy promenade past ice covered cars and trees on the shores of Lake Geneva in Versoix, Switzerland. Across Eastern Europe, thousands of people dug out from heavy snow that had fallen during a cold snap and killed hundreds of people. (AP Photo/Keystone/Martial Trezzini, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 1, 2012 file photo, Actress Meryl Streep uses her iPhone to get a photo of her and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton following the State Department Dinner for the Kennedy Center Honors gala at the State Department in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 30, 2012 file photo, damage caused by a fire in the Breezy Point section of the Queens borough of New York is shown. The fire department sent more than 190 firefighters to the blaze caused by superstorm Sandy. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II, File)

FILE - In this April 26, 2012 file photo provided by the CU Independent, shows a bear that wandered into the University of Colorado Boulder, Colo., dorm complex Williams Village falling from a tree after being tranquilized by Colorado wildlife officials. Colorado University police spokesman Ryan Huff said the bear was likely 1-3 years old and weighed somewhere between 150-200 pounds. (AP Photo/CU Independent, Andy Duann, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 9, 2012 file photo, President Barack Obama, right, is picked-up off the ground by Scott Van Duzer, left, owner of Big Apple Pizza and Pasta Italian Restaurant during an unannounced stop, in Ft. Pierce, Fla. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

FILE - In this April 6, 2012 file photo, the burning fuselage of an F/A-18 Hornet lies smoldering after crashing into a residential building in Virginia Beach, Va. (AP Photo/Zach Zapatero, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 26, 2012 file photo, a worker is seen partially submerged under water as he tries to repair a broken pipe in Caracas, Venezuela. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)

FILE - In this June 2, 2012 file photo, Egypt's ex-President Hosni Mubarak lays on a gurney inside a barred cage in the police academy courthouse in Cairo, Egypt. Mubarak was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the killing of protesters during last year's revolution that forced him from power, a verdict that caps a stunning fall from grace for a man who ruled the country as his personal fiefdom for nearly three decades.(AP Photo/File)

FILE - In this May 23, 2012 file photo, chief midwife Maria Antoneta Cabral Barbosa holds a newborn baby boy she had just delivered by flashlight, at the regional hospital in Gabu, Guinea-Bissau. In Guinea-Bissau, one of the deadliest places in the world to give birth, a woman has a 1 in 19 chance of maternal death, compared to about 1 in 2,100 in the United States. Experts say women are increasingly heading to medical centers when things go awry, but logistical, financial, and cultural barriers are still keeping many pregnant women from seeking help in time. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

FILE - This July 13, 2011 file photo, made available on the International Security Assistance Force's Flickr website shows the former Commander of International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan Gen. Davis Petraeus, left, shaking hands with Paula Broadwell, co-author of "All In: The Education of General David Petraeus." Petraeus resigned as CIA director over his extramarital affair with his biographer, Broadwell. (AP Photo/ISAF, File)

FILE - In this Oct. 19, 2012 file photo, a Lebanese rescue man, carries an injured boy at the scene of an explosion in the mostly Christian neighborhood of Achrafiyeh, Beirut, Lebanon. A car bomb ripped through eastern Beirut, shearing the balconies of off residential buildings and sending bloodied victims pouring out into the streets in the most serious blast this city has seen in years. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 16, 2012 file photo, police surround the bodies of striking miners after opening fire on a crowd at the Lonmin Platinum Mine near Rustenburg, South Africa. South African police opened fire on a crowd of striking workers at a platinum mine, leaving an unknown number of people injured and possibly dead. Motionless bodies lay on the ground in pools of blood. (AP Photo/File)

FILE - In this Nov. 11, 2012 file aerial photo, the two homes that were leveled and the numerous neighboring homes that were damaged from a massive explosion that sparked a huge fire and killed two people are shown in Indianapolis. Nearly three dozen homes were damaged or destroyed, and seven people were taken to a hospital with injuries. The powerful nighttime blast shattered windows, crumpled walls and could be felt at least three miles away. Authorities have said they believe the explosion was intentional and caused by natural gas but have released no other details. (AP Photo/The Indianapolis Star, Matt Kryger, File)

FILE - In this March 20, 2012 file photo, suspended by wires, Chinese artist Li Wei performs in the sky at La Villette in Paris. Wei's work often depicts him in apparently gravity-defying situations. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

FILE - This Nov. 10, 2012 file photo shows a view of the fireworks display organized by Kuwait's government to commemorate Constitution Day in Kuwait City. The 60 minute $14 million spectacle was competing for a place in the Guiness Book of Records. (AP Photo/Gustavo Ferrari, File)

FILE - In this Jan. 7, 2012 file photo, a wild full grown leopard scalps the head of a man as it attacks after wandering into a residential neighborhood in Gauhati, in the northern state of Assam, India. Later the leopard was tranquilized by wildlife official and taken to the state zoological park. The leopard ventured into a crowded area and injured four people before it was captured and caged. (AP Photo/Manas Paran, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 19, 2012 file photo, U.S. President Barack Obama, right, waves as he embraces Myanmar democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi after addressing members of the media at Suu Kyi's residence in Yangon, Myanmar. Obama became the first U.S. president to visit the Asian nation also known as Burma. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 11, 2012 file photo, this still image included in a video obtained by the Associated Press from Fahd al-Bakoush, a freelance videographer and activist, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, shows the body of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens being moved by Libyan civilians trying to rescue him after gunmen and protesters rampaged through the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The group of Libyans had stumbled across Stevens' seemingly lifeless form inside a dark room and didn't know who he was, only that he was a foreigner, al-Bakoush and two other witnesses told the AP. The Arabic script in the photo translates into English as, "photo Fahd al-Bakoush." (AP Photo/Fahd al-Bakoush, File)

FILE - In this Feb. 26, 2012 file photo, best actress Meryl Streep, left, for "The Iron Lady" and best actor Jean Dujardin for "The Artist" pose with their awards during the 84th Academy Awards in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, File)

FILE - In this Aug. 5, 2012 file photo, and publicly provided by the police department in Hanover, Germany, a squirrel is trapped in a manhole cover in Isenhagen, northern Germany. After they were called by neighbors, police managed to free the animal by using olive oil. (AP Photo/Police Hanover, File)

FILE - In this Sept. 5, 2012 file photo, Russian President Vladimir Putin waits in a motorized hang glider next to a Siberian white crane, on the Yamal Peninsula, in Russia. Putin took part in a flight as part of a program devised by environmentalists to lead the endangered cranes, which were raised in captivity, on their migration to Asia. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Druzhinin, Presidential Press Service, File)

FILE - In this Nov. 11, 2012 file photo, a young man and a woman enjoy swimming in flooded St. Mark's Square in Venice, Italy. High tides flooded Venice, leading Venetians and tourists to don high boots and use wooden walkways to cross St. Mark's Square and other areas under water. (AP Photo/Luigi Costantini, File)

FILE - In this June 21, 2012 file photo, Indian employees are evacuated as smoke billows after the Maharashtra state government building caught fire in Mumbai, India. Hundreds of employees were evacuated from the seven-story government building as more than two dozen fire engines battled the major fire that raged for more than three hours in India's financial and entertainment capital. (AP Photo/File)

Feb. 12, 2012 file photo, Adele poses backstage with her six awards at the 54th annual Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. Adele won awards for best pop solo performance for "Someone Like You," song of the year, record of the year, and best short form music video for "Rolling in the Deep," and album of the year and best pop vocal album for "21." After a year of Grammy glory and James Bond soundtracking, Adele has been voted The Associated Press Entertainer of the Year. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)